12/3/2014 – What’s your retirement IQ? For most, it’s lousy (USA Today)

In survey after survey, Americans have not scored well on retirement literacy tests. But a new survey of Americans ages 60 to 75 says 80% failed a retirement income literacy test. The results of the poll, released today by the American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pa., are pretty dismal. The poll was conducted through online interviews of 1,019 people 60 to 75 years old with at least $100,000 in household assets.They were asked 38 retirement literacy questions on basics, such as Social Security, life expectancy, IRAs, life insurance and investments, and how bonds work. Only 2 in 10 had passing grades, the college said.

It’s not the first survey to raise concerns about Americans’ retirement readiness. The 2011 report “Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning in the United States,” done for the National Bureau for Economic Research, found similar shortcomings, though not to the same degree. That report said, “Americans fail to understand critical financial concepts, including interest compounding, inflation, and risk diversification, and these shortcomings are most acute for women, the less educated, and older individuals.”

Read the full article at USA Today.